Hetscheepvaartmuseum

I was in Amsterdam last weekend and had a spare hour to visit Hetscheepvaartmuseum, the Maritime Museum.

My two primary aims were to visit the Globe and Navigation sections, but I'm always happy to wander around other exhibits in a museum like this.  It is a beautiful building, both externally and inside.

The globe gallery was awesome.

Over 70 globes from large 68cm diameter ones to wee babes, pocket sized 6.75cm diameter.  There was understandably a good selection by the 17th century Johan Blaeu from Amsterdam.  This pocket one was by Joseph Moxon from London.
 
Obviously there were not just terrestrial globes but celestial (navispheres) too.  This 23cm diameter one is by a French naval officer.

A planetarium.

A Telluruium, showing the movement of the earth around the sun.

I then visited the Navigational Instruments section.

These tobacco boxes have carvings on the lid to held calculate the speed of the ship.

Sextants galore.

A semi automatic sextant?

Chronometer.

Plumb line anyone?

And a compass.

I wandered out to the rigged ship, the Amsterdam, which is a replica of a VOC, Dutch East India Company, vessel which ran aground in the Channel in 1749.

I could have stayed here all day.

Messy chart cabinet.

And a more modern variant, back inside the main museum.

And I even found a geo bag to buy.

A fun hour or so. A few more photos here.

Drive by Trig

I had set aside the day to bag some trigs but as I wasn't feeling great today, due to a stomach ache,  realised I had to do drive-by-trigs.  Fortunately the area around south Tiverton obliged me.

I started with TP6969 Windmill Down.  A mere hop over a fence and a bag of a lonely and quite exposed trig.


Fab views through the sight holes though!

And from the top.

Then it was off through the embryonic Dart River to the next one.

TP4573, Lower Way, is up in a Devon hedge.  No problems there then.  Just a bit of a fight up through brambles and a lovely view.  I'm sometimes quite pleased I bag trigs alone as my commentary of "Aha, there you are.  Wow got you.  How are you?" would sound very weird.  Says I typing it out for everyone to read.


It was quite a fight to unearth the flush bracket on this one.

Next off was Crockers Down.  Another drive-by-trig up a random Devon lane with oodles of pheasants and no passing places.  The best way to find a trig.  A pretty suberb plinth for this one.

Shame the top was so eroded.


And finally I headed to TP3396, Gogwell Farm.  A short off-road drive to get to this one, which confused the sat nav.

Had to double-check the map before finding this one as I walked past it.  It's in the middle of the photo.

See?

Another damaged top.

Public Roll their Sleeves Up

I only read about this earlier but it's been going on for a while. The British Library are using Joe/Jo public to help them georeference their old digitised maps.  More here.  What an absolutely brilliant idea!  If you don't have enough man (woman) power yourself, ask the public.  There are loads of people more than happy and more than capable to help.  This is not safety critical so why not? Brilliant.  Well done whoever was inspired to do that. 

Tintagel and Boscastle - Trigs and Related

Have just returned from a rather blustery weekend in north Cornwall.  As you would expect, bagged a few trigs.  Yesterday managed just the one I didn't want to use the car and Tintagel is in a bit of a no-trig-zone.  So bagged Condolen Barrow.  It is perched on an ancient barrow - can't imagine the Ordnance Survey being able to build on top of these types of monuments nowadays.

This one was suffering from erosion around the base and somewhat off the vertical.

Today bagged quite a few.  Started with a new one for me, a 'platform bolt'.  It's larger than the base of a trig pillar (it's about 1.5m square).  I've never seen one before.  A sort of "starter for ten" trig but actually a benchmark  Fine to resect from, but lousy to intersect to unless you put a visible marker on top.


What was very typical is that it's slap bang in the middle of a hedge.

And also typical was a muddy/cow frequented path (I leave the rest to your imagination) which wasn't pleasant to trudge through.

Next was a lovely easy bag by the A39, Trewannion Down.

I don't usually wear all my hair up in my hat but the wind was whipping any loose bits around my face so it all had to get stuffed in.

And as if to prove a point, look at the way the trees in the distance have grown.  Prevailing wind anyone?

Then another fun discovery, a fundamental bench mark.  This was a short find involving some kicking of grass.  I love these sort of marks; there is a satisfaction in the hunt.  You wouldn't want everything to be too easy would you?  [NB - this it after being unearthed - it looked just like a grass verge a few minutes earlier].
 
A beauty.

And then a drive-by trig.  Dead easy, but still a mini thrill to find even though there is no 'chase'.

Scottish Geo Finds

I've just spent a week in Scotland on leave.  I started in Glasgow, swung by Dunblane and Stirling and finished my week in Ayr.

Glasgow is a truly beautiful city to wander around.  The architecture is fantastic.  Not only that but the building stone makes it dead easy to spot benchmarks.

Look at this beauty - higher than usual due to the building buttress.

I realised quite soon that the benchmarks were so easy to spot across road junctions that I nearly got run over a few times; being far more focused on the BM opposite than the traffic.  Doh.

Glasgow Central Station is a bit special.  I've never seen this before. I wonder if they put in the second higher BM when the lower one was covered?

As I walked towards Kelvingrove I liked this company's sign for obvious reasons.

And, hey, it has it's own benchmark too!

A stroll around the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum unearthed these

And a larger orrery.  This is by John Fulton built in 1833.  It contains only 7 planets: it was before Nepture and Pluto were discovered.

One thing I wanted to do whilst in Glasgow was the Glasgow Geek Guide.  I was particuarly keen to see the measurements in George's Square.    Standard measures at 62 deg F.

The guide says there are more in the North Lawns.  It took me a while to realise that these weren't easily accessible due to pre-Commonwealth Games construction work.  However, armed with a good idea where they should be a gap in the hoarding, I sort of 'bagged' them.
 
If you look carefully you can see the chain length marked out.

Maybe when I'm back next summer I'll be able to have a better look and perhaps see the RICS plaque too.

No geo finds in Dunblane but Stirling was oozing with them.  Or perhaps not?  Is this British Telecom graffiti?

And this is?

Now this one is a bit special - BM with bolt.  And I presume the info about is by the War Department?

More War Department info on the walls surrounding Stirling Castle.

The Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery was a nice find. 

Queen Anne official weights, 1707.

Imperial Yard.

And a chain.

Lastly I visited Ayr. I had decided to bag a couple of OS bolts on the promenade. The first was up on the south arm of the harbour.  As I walked towards it I came across this  unusual lampost.

Not a mile I've come across in my geodesy career.  It is apparently1984 yards, 224 yards longer than a standard mile.  Whatever 'standard' was in those days.  It is not at all surprising that measurements varied locally; I'm still smiling at the Smoot length we found in Boston last year.
 
At the end of the south arm of the harbour entrance is a very rusty light beacon.

And a few metres away is the bolt.  A local fisherman moved his foot so I could take a photo.  I got the 'you look a bit mad to be photographing the pavement' look from him which I am well used to seeing.  Anyway, TP11614 all bagged and blogged.
 
The second bolt, a Lang Scots Mile and a bit away, was equally unexciting to look at.  But I still sadly took a photo. TP11612 bagged.